Honourable chair and honourable members of the standing committee, I am Joshua Wong, the convenor of Scholarism and now an 18-year-old university student. Thank you for the Canadian Parliament’s invitation giving me the opportunity to be one of the Hong Kong representatives here.

Today, from a student’s perspective, I hope I can share my experience and exposure to these social movements since the age of 14 by illustrating how the central government of China oppressed the future of the next generation in the aspects of political systems and education. I hope my sharing will help to enhance the international concern about Hong Kong’s democratic progress.

On July 1, 2003, there were 500,000 Hong Kong people out on the streets to protest against article 23 of the basic law, which oppressed freedom of speech. In addition, the people also were striving for universal suffrage. The huge participation in that incident not only caused the stepping down of Tung Chee-hwa, who was the the Chief Executive, but also the withdrawal of article 23.

Since then, as a result, we have observed that the central government began to have a strong feeling about a need to strengthen the Hong Kong people’s identity-recognition of China or even of the Chinese Communist party. Focusing on the identity issue for young people and students, in 2011 the education department announced that all primary school and secondary school students needed to learn the national education curriculum.

In the national education curriculum, there were many parts emphasizing the students' need to establish their obedience as well as their praise towards the Chinese Communist government, with standards such as how students were expected to be touched and to be in tears in front of the national flag-raising ceremony. This means that the national education subject was more than an education subject and in fact was a brainwashing tool.

If the nature of the education was to develop young people’s capability for independent thinking, this subject definitely violated the education principle. It illustrated that the central government just viewed Hong Kong as a ruled and obedient Hong Kong, without any respect towards the young and the students’ right to attain proper citizenship, including the right to criticize the government.

Since then, I have had a strong awareness that not only political parties and teachers' unions should protest against the subject. Therefore, four years ago, at the age of 14, I established a student organization named Scholarism. We gathered a few hundred secondary school students who supported the core values of democracy and freedom. We walked on the street protesting, promoting our values and expressing our requests, and we gained a lot of support from the Hong Kong people.

Later, with the exposure to the public of the government brainwashing education material called “The China Model”, which described the Chinese Communist Party as an “advanced, selfless, and united” ruling organization, the whole city’s protest temperature against this national education was raised rapidly. With the hunger strike of students and 120,000 people in occupation outside the government office, the government finally was forced to put aside the subject. At that time, I was only 15.

Previously, people thought that political movements could only be led by political parties and workers' unions. No one could imagine that secondary school students could plan a social movement. After the success of the anti-national-education movement, more people showed their concerns and gave support to the social actions of the student organizations. Many people began to discover that it was the students' energy, persistence, determination, and courage that had enabled them to stand upon the stage of history for a more equal political system. This is why, after the anti-national-education movement, Scholarism continues to strive for true universal suffrage.

Last year there were different joint activities with the Hong Kong Federation of Students for expressing our dissatisfaction in regard to a decision made on August 31, including a student strike joined by more than 1,000 students in secondary school and 10,000 university students. Also, on September 26, there was a re-entering of the Civic plaza, an action finally triggered as a result of the Umbrella Movement. In the nearly 80 days of the Umbrella Movement, there's not yet any achievement, regardless of the participation of 200,000 Hong Kong people.

But through my experience and participation in the social movement, I want to tell every honourable member here and all the Chinese in Canada after going through the days of the anti-national-education protest and the Umbrella Movement, the lives of students and young people in Hong Kong are no longer the same. The generation of extensive political awareness has already begun. This is the reason I still have hope, even though there is no achievement from the Umbrella Movement and the pro-China people continuously oppress academic freedom and continuously use politically legal prosecution against the protestors.

Honourable members, you may think that in a democratic country, politics should be for the professional participation of political parties and politicians, and social movement in the streets should only be organized by the minority of idealistic university students. But from four years ago until now, the age of social movement participation is declining in Hong Kong. The phenomenon in the Umbrella Movement is that 13-year-old children would participate in the student strike on the street; 14-year-old girls would stand firm against the tear gas, equipped with goggles and masks; while some other 15-year-old students would be arrested for civil disobedience. Not only the senior form secondary school students but even junior form students became activists.

I understand there are many calculations related to international politics. Every day you may attend this kind of hearing routinely, and perhaps there won't be much impact on your next election, whether you care about Hong Kong's issues or not. But please think differently. The children participating in the Umbrella Movement are similar in age to your son and daughter. Maybe you have difficulty understanding why the students living in an international financial centre would rather risk their future to push social reform, regardless of the risk of being blacklisted from entry into China or leaving offence records that may affect their careers. Although young people understand that participation in social movements may affect their future careers, when they also discover they can't see any future in the current system, changing the current system is the only way out.

I hope the Canadian Parliament will continue to be concerned about the Hong Kong situation and exert its influence and pressure on the Chinese government, since maintaining international oversight and engagement is an effective way to support democratic freedom and human rights in Hong Kong.

This is the end of my presentation. Thank you.

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